Читать книгу Paternity Unknown - Jean Barrett - Страница 10

He was in the wilderness, he was lost, and it was snowing.

Okay, so there was still some question about the first two, but there was no mistaking the snow. The skies had been a clear, brittle blue when he’d left the airport near Kalispell. Somewhere along his route, though, a cloud cover had sneaked in over the mountains, obscuring the sun.

He hadn’t been worried when the first white flakes swirled through the air. Hell, it was November, and this was Montana. It was supposed to snow, wasn’t it? The car rental agency hadn’t mentioned anything about the possibility of a storm on the way.

But the snow had thickened and for the better part of an hour now, the stuff had been falling at a serious rate. No weather report on the radio. All he could seem to find was music.

The wilderness part was a matter of definition. He knew there were rugged mountains out there—the Flathead Range, according to the map he’d found in the glove compartment. He just couldn’t see them through this curtain of white.

For that matter, he could barely make out the ranks of evergreens pressing in on him. They crowded both sides of the winding road, a forest unbroken by any clearing or a sign of a building. For a man who had spent most of his life in a large city, that translated into his version of a wilderness.

As for being lost…yeah, it felt like it.

He couldn’t remember when he had last met another vehicle. There was just him and this narrow ribbon climbing through the hills. It seemed more like a back road than a highway. Had he missed a sign, taken a wrong turn? The map was of no use; it wasn’t specific enough.

Nor could his cell phone help him. He’d tried to raise the state highway department to learn about the weather conditions and to ask directions, only he was unable to get a signal. The weather was probably to blame—maybe a tower was down.

As if all that weren’t bad enough, the light was rapidly fading. No surprise at this time of the year when the days were so short, but it made his situation all the more treacherous.

Any fool would have turned back long ago, but he didn’t consider it. He couldn’t. Whatever the risk, the urgency of his mission forced him to go on. He had to reach the woman whose knowledge meant his survival.

No time to lose, either. They must be searching for you by now, and if you don’t get to her before they find you…

Forget about that. Take it one step at a time.

At this moment, that meant concentrating on the road. It wasn’t good. The snow was piling up. How much longer would the route remain passable?

Whether it was the instinct that had served him so well in the past or merely blind luck that enabled him to glimpse the sign at the side of the road a moment later, he couldn’t say. The point was, he saw it, and he could have easily missed it in the driving snow.

Easing the car to a halt, he peered through the windshield where the wipers swished across the glass. The beams of his headlights penetrated the snow and gathering darkness just enough for him to make out the old, faded sign.

It wasn’t a directional sign. It was a small billboard. Straining, he could see that it advertised vacation cabins for rent. The cabins were of no interest to him. Their location was. Elkton, Five Miles Ahead, the sign read. His destination. He was on the right road.

Relieved, he moved on. The conditions worsened with each bend in the road as the snowfall accelerated to a furious blizzard. It was full night now. He could barely see the route. Feeling his way, he crested a rise and almost missed a sharp curve. He swung the wheel in time and rounded the turn.

Though alert for trouble, he wasn’t prepared for the cow that loomed directly in front of him. Or maybe it was a moose. It didn’t matter. Whatever the animal was, it was a large threat frozen in the glare of his headlights that sliced through the screen of snow.

He cursed as he hit the brake to avoid a collision. Mistake. There was ice under the snow. The vehicle went into a skid, its nose spinning to the right. Before he could correct it, the car leaped the shoulder and plunged down a long, steep embankment.

Pine boughs slashed the sides of the rental sedan, failing to slow its descent. In the end, the car slammed against the trunk of a tree. Bouncing off, it lurched over onto its side.

He felt a sharp jolt as his head struck the doorframe. A second later, his pain was obliterated by the blackness that swallowed him.